“However, in brief, I think the connecting of 'God' and 'Being' is one of these things for which there seems to be a natural impulse in human thinking but it can also lead to confusions. Religious believers mostly want to see God as the epitome of what is most really real and in some non-theistic contexts, people talk simply of 'Isness'.” PeopleThinkingWantHumansRealSeemsNaturalReligiousBelieverConfusionImpulseConnectingEpitome Author:George Pattison
“Religious life is about something real in human experience that is not constrained by what Wittgenstein called 'all that is the case'. In this sense Heidegger is not simply 'mistaken' - he just asks us, as philosophers mostly do, to think more carefully about what we're saying.” ThinkingHumansRealLife IsAsksReligiousCasesPhilosopherMistakenHuman ExperienceSomething RealReligious LifeHeidegger Author:George Pattison
“But why should a religious person be interested in a work like Heidegger's that many regard as the epitome of nihilism? For a start, because Heidegger forces us in a way that few philosophers do to really think through the seriousness and all-encompassing nature of our mortality.” ThinkingWayShouldPersonsForceReligiousRegardPhilosopherMortalitySeriousnessNihilismEpitomeReligious PersonHeidegger Author:George Pattison
“Positively, he [Heidegger] shows that the prospect of death doesn't of itself destroy all possibilities of meaning but calls instead for these to be relocated from fantasies about a future post-mortem life. However, I don't think he does enough in this work to show that this relocation has - I believe - a primarily ethical character (in Levinas's sense of 'ethical').” ThinkingBelieveDoeEnoughCharacterShowsI BelieveFantasyPossibilityPostsEthicalPositivelyHeidegger Author:George Pattison
“In brief, I regard love as a more decisive focus of meaning than death. In terms of Heidegger's argument, this is because I think he misdescribes the importance of the deaths of others and focuses exclusively on my relation to my own death. But, in reality, the deaths of others have a more urgent and immediate impact on our lives than the purely notional knowledge that I too will one day die.” ThinkingRealityDiesTermMy OwnFocusOur LivesOne DayArgumentImportanceRelationRegardImpactUrgentHeidegger Author:George Pattison
“Of course, it's always difficult to disentangle fact from fiction in relation to, e.g., the singularity project. Many scientists I know are dismissive of transhumanist claims, BUT the last 100 years has surely taught us never to underestimate the pace and scope of scientific progress. However, even if much of this turns out to be science-fiction, it also reveals a way of thinking about human life that I find deeply troubling.” IfsThinkingKnowsWayYearsHumansFactsLastsTurnsCoursesDifficultFictionProgressTaughtProjectsScientistClaimsRelationScience FictionHuman LifePaceUnderestimateScopeWay Of ThinkingTaught UsSingularityScientific Progress Author:George Pattison
“I think he [Heidegger] sets the question up in a useful way and, despite appearances, he's not 'against' technology. He just wants us to have a questioning and thoughtful relation to it. This must be relevant to any approach.” ThinkingWayWantTechnologyApproachRelationAppearanceDespiteThoughtfulRelevantQuestioningWant UHeidegger Author:George Pattison
“At a theoretical level, I think a naturalist approach to religion is just asking questions I'm not interested in. They're perfectly legitimate in their own terms, but they don't address the actual experience of how one or other aspect of religion becomes existentially meaningful to us in our actual lives. The fact that we ourselves are the subject of investigation makes all the difference.” ThinkingFactsTermDifferencesLevelsSubjectsApproachAspectAskingMeaningfulAddressesInvestigationNot InterestedTheoreticalAsking QuestionsNaturalistActual Life Author:George Pattison
“Now, as at the beginning of the 19th century, there is a certain discovery of Eckhart and related figures. There are questions as to how far our Eckhart accords with the real medieval teacher of that name, but there are certainly images in his work that help us work our way past several of the aporia with which we're confronted in our attempts to think about God.” ThinkingWayRealHelpingPastCertainNamesTeacherCenturyFiguresDiscoveryRelatedMedievalAccord19th Century Author:George Pattison
